‘True Blood’ Review: “Hopeless”

‘True Blood’ season 5 drives a stake into its sixth episode of the year, as Bill and Eric succeed in bringing Russell Edgington into the vampire authority, but discover his plans might be more sinister, while Sookie learns the truth about her parents and Sam investigates his shooting with Andy.

Last week’s ‘True Blood’ episode “Let's Boot and Rally” saw Bill and Eric recruiting Sookie to help find Russell Edgington, while Jessica helped Tara adjust to life as a vampire, and Terry and Patrick learned the secret of the monster stalking them for their time in Iraq. So what will the latest episode of ‘True Blood’ bring?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘True Blood’ season 5 episode 6 “Hopeless!”

Jumping back in where we left off, a wolf drags Alcide off-screen, and Russell makes a move toward Sookie, but her faerie powers safe the day long enough for Eric to get within inches of killing Russell. Bill pulls him off, reminding him that delivering Russell alive might stay their own executions, and the Authority arrives to claim their prize.

Back at Fangtasia, Jessica and Tara’s brawl continues, until Pam drags her vampire offspring away, showing a light amount of pride at Tara’s fighting prowess. Elsewhere, Patrick and Terry discover that the Ifrit has killed Eller, and take off into the night fleeing the monster. Boy, this show jumps around.

Kibwe and the Authority take Russell into custody as he rants about the fallacy of their belief in Lilith, and Kibwe orders Bill and Russell to glamour Alcide and Sookie into believing they were never there. Eric performs the glamour on Alcide, adding that he should keep his hands off Sookie as he finds her repulsive, but Bill’s glamour of Sookie is decidedly for show. Without forcing her to believe it, Bill says that she should remember nothing of this, him or Eric, and should live her life in the sun with others like her, as if they’d never met.

Meanwhile, Kibwe happens upon Doug and the other survivors of Russell’s reign, promising to glamour them all, but instead leads them into a bus to be slaughtered one-by-one! Elsewhere, Luna and Sam are rushed to the hospital, while young Emma arrives at her grandmother Martha’s house, still in her pup form. Over at Fantasia, Hoyt taunts Jessica that she still has some feelings for him, but she denies it however tempting to have him as her slave, and calls him out on living a Fangbanger life that isn’t him, even if he insists that it is.

Jason has yet another dream of his father, happy to be back in his presence and assuring him he’ll find the vampire that killed him. His father starts to say that “the only thing you have to fear is” before Jason snaps awake, cutting him off. Meanwhile, Alcide wakes in Sookie’s bed, disoriented, and experiencing light visions of the two hooking up earlier that night, but when he recoils from Sookie’s touch, she restores his memory of the night. Refusing to let things between Russell and wolves get out of hand again, Alcide storms off.

Martha arrives at the hospital with Emma, and Luna reluctantly agrees to leave Emma in her care for as long as it takes Jason and Luna to find who’s been committing the shifter murders. Elsewhere, Terry has a panic attack and bolts from Patrick’s car, terrified of the Ifrit that his evil actions in Afghanistan have now brought upon him. At a different hospital, Lafayette visits his mother Ruby Jean, who in her own crazy way confirms that the spirit of Jesus is visiting them, but needs help from beyond the grave. Lafayette will need to go see Don Bartolo, who started all of this by making Jesus drink the goat’s blood last season.

The women at Merlotte’s commiserate about the men in their lives, when Jason arrives to tell Sookie what he’s learned about their parents fate, and prove it to her by taking her to see their cousin Hadley and her son Hunter. Meanwhile, Andy reluctantly agrees to let Sam help in his investigation, and Alcide pays a visit to J.D. to announce that he will take command of the wolf pack, fighting for it if he has to. But we’ll save the actual fight for next week…for some reason.

Back at the Vampire Authority, Bill and Eric arrive to find the entire council toasting to their victory over Russell, their iStakes deactivated, and even Roman jovially singing their praises and plying them with vintage blood. After confirming their loyalty to the mainstreaming movement, Roman orders Salome to schedule Russell’s execution for that night, as any information obtained through interrogation would likely be useless. Eric however, is more concerned with getting in to see Nora before her own execution.

Back at Merlotte’s Terry confesses the truth about the Ifrit to Arlene, denying it has anything to do with his medication, and insists that he needs to cut her and the kids out of his life for their own safety. Reluctantly, she agrees, while over in in the middle of nowhere Jason tries to show Sookie the Faerie club. Sookie manages to hear, and ultimately enter, dragging Jason in with her. There they find Hadley, along with another Faerie who claims to have met Sookie before during her escape from Queen Mab in season 4.

Andy pays a visit to the vampire defense shop, interrogating store-owner Junior, who becomes visibly nervous when Sam enters. Junior wonders why the government doesn’t’ acknowledge the presence of other supernatural creatures beside vampires , and ducks behind the counter for a gun, but before he does, Sam shoots him with a crossbow, having smelled the man going into “survival mode.” Across town, Hoyt gets himself dangerously fed on by a male vampire, who quickly explodes into blood when everyone’s favorite Obama-masked attackers shoot him! One of them recognizes the delirious Hoyt, and pack him into the van as they drive off.

Back at the faerie club, Hadley explains that there’s nothing fishy going on with the club, as her companion reluctantly explains the truth about Sookie’s parents. Sookie notices her power starting to fade, as she listens to Hadley explain that years ago, a vampire ambushed their parents on the road after having smelled faerie blood in the car on a band-aid. Outraged, Sookie tries to attack, but winds up ensnared by the other faeries.

Back at the Vampire Authority, Eric watches Nora chant, as the councilors prepare to execute Russell. Russell goes on about how they’re all hypocrites, and he only embraced his blood-lusting vampire nature. Roman goes to activate the iStake, but it fails! Nora explains to Eric that Lilith’s plan is “finally happening,” as Russell gets the drop on Roman, and stakes him! O noes! We’ll miss you, Christopher Meloni.

It's nice that the stories are all starting to intersect more, as Hoyt's been dragged away by the shifter murderers, and Russell seems to be back in full form. It seemed like there was a bit of time to waste this episode, as characters share arbitrary scenes, or faeries dance unendingly, but as a midway point for the season, "Hopeless" isn't exactly living up to its name. So long as things continue dovetailing, 'True Blood' season 5 still has potential.

Did you get your fill of fang-banging ‘True Blood’ action? What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of ‘True Blood’ season 5 episode “In the Beginning” on HBO!